


For Warmth

by aintitnifty



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Honestly Just An Excuse To Write Cuddles, Hurt/Comfort, Mild Peril
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-02-07
Packaged: 2018-05-18 21:55:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5944584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aintitnifty/pseuds/aintitnifty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Don’t panic, Naruto tells himself. It’s the first thing that pops into his mind, and the voice in his head sounds suspiciously like Kakashi: Just don’t panic.</i>
</p>
<p>Kakashi is down for the count, and it's up to the kids to save the day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Warmth

**Author's Note:**

> As the tags say, this was mostly just an excuse to write Team 7 peril and snuggles, because the world needs more of those things.
> 
> In other news, after about eight years of freedom, I'm back in ninja hell. Please send help.
> 
> *
> 
> Note: This is set in a vague timeline sometime between the chuunin exams and Sasuke's departure.

“He’s not coming up.”

Sakura is the first one to say it, her eyes wide in her pale face, breath crystallizing in the wintry air.

“He’ll come up,” Sasuke says immediately, but his hands are clenched at his sides, and his eyes don’t leave the dark expanse of water in front of them.

“It’s been too long,” Sakura says. “What if he’s—?”

“He’ll come up,” Sasuke snaps.

Naruto looks between them, panting. The beach around them has been trampled flat into a dirty mixture of snow, sand, and blood, scattered with the unconscious bodies of the Rain chuunin they’d fought while their sensei dealt with the lone jounin.

Naruto rubs the back of his wrist across his bleeding lip, wincing, as he looks out over the ocean waves. That was the last place he saw Kakashi, dueling with the female jounin, both of them balanced on top of the water and exchanging deafening blows and blindingly fast ninjutsu, often appearing as nothing more than darkened blurs above the waves.

“How long has it been?” Naruto asks; his voice feels shockingly loud in the sudden post-battle quiet.

“A few minutes, maybe more,” Sakura says. “They were still fighting the last time I looked, I swear, but now I can’t see them, and I don’t know how long they’ve been gone, but I think he went under, and—”

“Did you see him get hit?” Sasuke asks.

“I don’t know.” Sakura sounds close to tears, and her hands are trembling where she has them cupped over her lips. “I don’t know, I just looked over and they were both gone.”

_Don’t panic_ , Naruto tells himself. It’s the first thing that pops into his mind, and the voice in his head sounds suspiciously like Kakashi: _Just don’t panic._

“You’re sure you don’t see him anywhere?” Sasuke says, sharp eyes scanning the water, and even he sounds close to panic now, and that’s enough to make Naruto leap into action.

_Don’t panic_ , he thinks. _Don’t panic. Don’t panic._ It’s the only thing running through his mind as he sprints down the beach and into the frigid water, heedless of Sakura calling frantically after him. There’s no time to think about how cold the water is, or how the tide immediately tries to drag him under, or how his clothes slow him down; there’s only time to think about Kakashi, somewhere in the darkness ahead, probably injured, possibly drowning, and there is no way in hell Naruto will allow that to happen. He kicks off the bottom and lengthens his strokes and slogs through the choppy waves.

His limbs go numb about a hundred yards from the beach, and he can already feel himself tiring, his muscles weary from the freezing cold and his earlier fight. The water drags at his limbs, and waves slap him in the face, making him splutter. He’s just starting to wonder how the hell he’ll find Kakashi when he hears Sasuke call to him from the beach.

“ _TO YOUR LEFT!_ ” 

Without hesitation, Naruto kicks his feet and heaves himself through the water to his left, fanning out his arms, his fingers, anything to cover more space and make it more likely for him to find his sensei. He takes a deep, freezing breath, and then submerges for a moment, forcing his eyes open, peering through the darkness. It’s eerily calm beneath the waves, and the moon provides a slight glow, just enough for Naruto to make out a couple of dark figures hovering in the water far below him.

_Thank you, Sharingan_ , Naruto thinks, nearly grinning in relief, and he surfaces to drag in one more breath before submerging again and kicking for the figures. The woman is there, her long, dark hair undulating around her, but Naruto ignores her in favor of Kakashi, hanging limply in the water a few feet beyond her. There’s blood in the water around him, seeping from a few deep gashes on his chest and thigh, and Naruto’s stomach clenches in fear. He reaches out and seizes Kakashi’s vest, tugging him into his arms, and then starts to kick furiously for the surface. Kakashi is dead weight in his arms, and Naruto’s lungs are screaming by the time he bursts out of the water, gasping for breath. He rolls onto his back, keeping one arm wrapped firmly around Kakashi’s torso, and does his best to keep Kakashi’s head above water as he starts swimming for shore.

His limbs have officially gone numb by now, and his throat is raw from the frigid air, and he can’t tell whether Kakashi is breathing, but he forces himself to keep kicking, to keep moving, to get to land as soon as possible.

It feels like it takes hours, but eventually his heels touch sand, someone splashes through the waves beside him, and two pairs of hands are reaching down to take Kakashi from him, heaving him through the shallows and onto the beach. Naruto flips wearily onto his hands and knees and crawls for the beach, buffeted by the waves, coughing as the frigid water chokes him, flooding his mouth and nose.

“C’mon,” says a low voice, and strong hands grasp him by the shoulders and haul him to his feet. Naruto leans against Sasuke as they trudge up to the beach. His knees are shaking, and he loses his footing twice on the uneven sand, staggering, but Sasuke doesn’t let him fall.

“H-h-how is he?” Naruto asks as they approach Sakura, who has fallen to her knees beside Kakashi on the sand, her fingers at his throat, feeling for a pulse.

“He’s alive,” she says, leaning down to press her ear to his chest, “but he’s not breathing.”

Naruto shoves away from Sasuke and stumbles to Kakashi’s side, collapsing to his knees. He reaches out with frozen hands, mindlessly touching Kakashi’s chest, as though just touching him can heal him, can make him okay again.

“Naruto, stop, he’s—” Sakura’s voice breaks as she catches Naruto’s hands in her own and gently lifts them from Kakashi’s vest. “His wounds,” she finishes numbly, and Naruto looks down at his trembling hands, stained red with Kakashi’s blood. Still shaking, he lowers them slowly to his lap.

“Do you know CPR?” Sasuke asks Sakura.

“O-of course,” she says, “but…”

Their eyes are drawn to the mask still drawn over Kakashi’s face, the mask they’ve never seen removed before.

Sakura reaches for it hesitantly, her fingers shaking.

“Should—should I—?”

“He’ll die, Sakura,” Sasuke growls.

That’s incentive enough: Sakura purses her lips in determination and hooks her fingers beneath the edge of the mask, then carefully tugs it down beneath his chin.

Kakashi’s face is pale and damp beneath the mask, his lips slightly parted and tinged blue, but that’s all that registers in Naruto’s mind before Sakura leans down, pinches Kakashi’s nose, and presses her mouth to his, forcing air into his lungs. Her brow is furrowed in concentration when she pulls away, and she stacks her hands on his chest to begin compressions, quick and firm. Then she’s back to breathing for him, and then compressions again, and Naruto doesn’t even notice that he’s clutching Kakashi’s hand tightly in his own until Kakashi starts choking, then coughing, and then lurches onto his side, ripping his hand from Naruto’s own, to heave seawater onto the frozen sand.

“Kakashi-sensei!” Naruto says, gripping his shoulder.

Sakura falls back onto her heels, breathing hard, watching as Kakashi coughs up more water, panting into the sand.

“Are you… are you okay?” Sasuke asks, resting a hand on Kakashi’s leg.

“P-peachy,” Kakashi rasps, spitting more water onto the sand. He rolls onto his back, still panting, and Sakura starts digging through her pack for bandages and medicines.

Naruto hesitates for a moment, peering at his teacher’s face. There are no scars beneath the mask, no deformities, nothing out of the ordinary, which puts to bed a number of rumors Naruto has heard in the past. In fact, apart from a small birthmark near Kakashi’s lips, it’s a perfectly normal face.

Naruto reaches out and gently starts tugging on the mask rolled around Kakashi’s neck. Kakashi meets his eye, and Naruto freezes.

“C-can I…?” Naruto says, and Kakashi’s lips twitch into a weak, crooked smile; it’s odd, for Naruto to actually see that expression, but it’s also rather nice.

“Thank you,” Kakashi says quietly, and Naruto carefully tugs the mask back into place.

“Here,” Sakura says, moving to rub some salve into a wound on Kakashi’s arm.

Kakashi catches her wrist with a trembling hand. “Wait,” he says, his jaw clenched against his chattering teeth. “We should g-get out of the open. There was a c-cabin up near the woods. We can stay there.”

“Can you make it?” Sasuke asks.

Kakashi cocks an eyebrow at him, the effect only slightly marred by the way Kakashi has begun to shudder. “Who do you think you’re t-talking to, kid?”

Sasuke smirks and takes Kakashi’s offered hand, slinging Kakashi’s arm around his shoulder and helping him to his feet. Sakura ducks beneath Kakashi’s other arm, and the three of them start trudging up the beach.

“You gonna be okay, Naruto?” Sasuke calls over his shoulder.

“I’m f-f-fine,” Naruto says, already struggling to his feet. “Right b-behind you.”

The trek up to the cabin is steep and freezing, and Naruto’s teeth won’t stop chattering, but before long, they’re settling Kakashi carefully onto the cabin’s wooden floor, and Sakura is bustling around gathering old blankets while Sasuke starts a fire in the grate. Naruto leans against the wall beside Kakashi and slides to the ground, his limbs still trembling with cold.

“All right, out of those clothes, you two,” Sakura says, standing above Naruto and Kakashi with her hands on her hips. “You’re going to freeze.”

“You c-c-can’t be serious,” Naruto says, hugging himself in an attempt to stop shivering.

“I’m just going to dry them, you ninny,” Sakura says. “You’ll have them back in a minute. Now hand them over.”

Naruto glances over to see Kakashi already shrugging gingerly out of his vest and handing it to Sakura, who takes it and slings it over one arm.

“Do you want to get frostbite?” Sakura asks Naruto when she sees that he still hasn’t started stripping.

“No,” he says petulantly, and starts trying to unzip his jacket with numb fingers. He bitterly wonders how the heck Kakashi managed to get his clothes off so quickly when he’d been in the water far longer than Naruto, but this train of thought is interrupted when Sakura finally lets out a loud sigh and crouches in front of him.

“For goodness’ sake,” she says, sounding exasperated, but fondly so, and then gentle hands are unzipping his coat and slipping it carefully off of his shoulders, and soon he’s shivering beside Kakashi, both of them stripped down and wrapped in blankets provided by Sakura, who was at least thoughtful enough to avert her eyes at the last minute.

Sasuke suddenly appears at Kakashi’s side, hands full of more blankets, bandages, and Sakura’s salves.

“Here,” he says, kneeling beside Kakashi and handing him one blanket and tossing the other to Naruto. “You’ll need some more layers while she dries your clothes.”

Kakashi wraps the blanket around his shoulders and leans back against the wall with a sigh, letting his eyes fall shut as his head thunks gently against the wood.

“Thank you,” he says, his voice still rather uneven from the shuddering, but stronger than before.

“How are your wounds?” Sasuke asks, already uncorking one of the little bottles of medicine.

“Better than they could have been,” Kakashi says wearily.

Naruto suddenly feels the quick, warm release of chakra, and he looks over to see Sakura making a sign over his and Kakashi’s clothes, which have lost their dampness and started to steam.

“There,” she says with satisfaction, reaching out to touch Kakashi’s shirt. “They’re still too hot to wear right now, but you can put them back on in a few minutes.” She turns towards them. “Do you want me to do that, Sasuke-kun?”

Sasuke is carefully dabbing some pale green salve into the deep gash on Kakashi’s thigh, his brow knit in concentration.

“You can work on his chest,” Sasuke says without looking up, holding out one of the small jars of salve. “It’s a bit deeper, so you should probably handle it.”

“What service,” Kakashi drawls, peering amusedly at Sakura as she kneels on his other side.

“You need stitches,” Sakura says, carefully pressing a finger to the edge of the slowly oozing wound running diagonally across Kakashi’s chest. “I only have a little bit of local anesthetic. Do you think it’ll be okay?”

“I’ve been sewn up with less,” Kakashi says.

Sakura nods and hurries over to her bag, heaped in a corner with the rest of their packs.

Meanwhile, Naruto watches Kakashi. He looks pale and exhausted, but he’s breathing and not bleeding too badly and alive, which is the most important thing. His body is still wracked by periodic shudders, despite the crackling fire and the fuzzy blankets, but his eyes are closed again and his brow is relaxed and he doesn’t seem to be in too much pain, completely oblivious to Sasuke bandaging up his leg.

“Do I pass inspection, Naruto?” Kakashi asks without opening his eyes, making Naruto jump.

“Just wanna be sure you’re okay,” Naruto says, flushing slightly. He tugs the blanket Sasuke gave him tighter around his shoulders, still shivering.

“I’ll be fine,” Kakashi says, and he turns his head to look at Naruto, his mismatched eyes warm. “Thank you.”

Naruto hugs the blanket even tighter. “You would’ve done the same for any of us.”

“Even so,” Kakashi says, closing his eyes again and leaning his head back against the wall. “I’m grateful.”

Naruto mumbles an indistinct reply, and then Sakura returns, kneeling between Kakashi and Naruto. She gives Naruto a fond smile before turning to their sensei with her needle and stitches, and suddenly Naruto feels much warmer than he did a minute ago.

Sakura leans over Kakashi and carefully starts sewing, and Naruto (unable to watch, his stomach already squeamish at the notion of stitches without anesthetic) curls his limbs tighter beneath the blanket and lets himself drowse.

A little while later, something drops heavily into his lap with a dull _whoomph_. Naruto startles awake, blinking, and realizes that the fire has died down a bit, Sakura is sitting across the room, polishing her kunai, and Sasuke is standing above Naruto, looking amused.

“Put your clothes back on, dumbass,” he says, and Naruto looks into his lap to see his clothes crumpled there, still a bit warm from Sakura’s chakra. “You don’t have to be naked all night.”

“I’m not naked, I have a blanket,” Naruto grumbles, poking a hand out from beneath his blanket to grab his underwear, and he realizes belatedly that his teeth have finally stopped chattering.

“Close enough,” Sasuke says, already turning away to stoke the fire. “Kakashi’s already decent, so we’re just waiting on you.”

“Like I had a choice,” Naruto says, glaring after him, then carefully shimmies into his underwear beneath the blankets. He lets the blanket slide off of his shoulders so he can shrug into his shirt, and he still has one arm out of his sleeve when his jacket hits him in the face.

“Goddamnit, Sasuke!” he yells while Sasuke laughs, and Sakura shushes them both.

“You’ll wake Kakashi-sensei,” she scolds.

Naruto glances to the side to see Kakashi still propped against the wall beside him, wrapped in a myriad blankets and apparently dead to the world. A healthy flush has returned to his cheeks, and he’s breathing evenly, and Naruto can just barely make out the stark whiteness of clean bandages wrapped around his chest. Naruto smiles, warmth spreading through his chest. It’s nice to see Kakashi looking so, well… normal, again.

“How long have I been out?” Naruto asks as he awkwardly tugs his pants on.

“Only for about thirty minutes,” Sakura says, lifting the kunai she was polishing so she could squint at it in the firelight; it gleamed. “You looked like you needed it.”

“I still need it,” Naruto mumbles. His limbs are fatigue-heavy and his head feels like it’s full of cotton. With a sigh, he shifts against the wall, trying to get comfortable. His buttocks fell asleep sometime during his nap, and he’s debating just flopping over onto the floor, but then he eyes Kakashi’s blanket nest again.

Naruto peers over at Sakura, but she’s busy with her kunai, wiping a dark cloth over the blade. He peers at Sasuke, but Sasuke has settled beside the fire and appears to be dozing off.

Quietly, carefully, Naruto scoots across the floor closer to Kakashi, until their arms brush through the layers and layers of blankets. He leans gently sideways, resting his head on Kakashi’s shoulder, and closes his eyes, exhaling slowly. Kakashi is a warm, solid presence against his side, and maybe Naruto is too old for this now, but no one’s paying attention to him, and Naruto can feel himself relaxing bit by bit, his muscles slowly going lax. There’s something comforting about being able to rest against his sensei. He feels small again, somehow. He feels protected. Safe.

Naruto lets out a contented sigh and turns his head, pressing his cheek firmly against Kakashi’s shoulder. His exhausted mind is already half asleep when he feels Kakashi shift slightly against him, and for a moment Naruto is afraid that he’ll be scolded, but then a warm arm loops around his waist and tugs him close, and he smiles, accepting the silent permission.

The next time Naruto wakes, the fire has died down to embers, and Sakura and Sasuke are no longer across the room.

Muzzy and confused, Naruto blinks into the darkness and lifts his head from Kakashi’s shoulder, looking around. He freezes when he spots his teammates, and a dopey grin spreads across his face.

Sakura has settled on Kakashi’s other side, her head pillowed on Kakashi’s shoulder and one hand curled against Kakashi’s leg, loosely gripping a handful of blankets as though afraid that if she lets go, Kakashi will vanish. Sasuke is on her other side, slumped against the wall, his head resting on Sakura’s shoulder. The two of them are wrapped in the same blanket, and Naruto can see Kakashi’s arm thrown around the both of them, his hand resting on Sasuke’s far shoulder.

Pleased, Naruto settles back against Kakashi, his chest feeling warm and fluttery. He knows that in the morning they’ll need to face the world again, deal with any more rogue ninja who might come there way, and complete their mission, but for now, he’s content to snuggle deeper into the blankets and sleep, safe and warm.


End file.
